As life sometimes dictates, something else very sudden and unexpected happened on the last day of school: Alex told us that she would be switching to a private school next year.

"My mom thinks it's for the best," she confides to us. "The moms gossip, and she just keeps looking at me like I've changed or something. Like I'm a bad kid now. I just want to make her happy."

It was true that gossip had been spreading already among the students as well. The boy guilty of the sexual harassment had just as many friends as Alex had and his parents were strictly opposed to the notion that he had done anything inappropriate for the time at all. Women were objects to them, and girls were just a reflection of that.

Still, we were sad she was leaving, at least, I think we all were. Sally announced somberly that Sal, Melanie and I would be having a group meeting rescheduled for the first weekend of summer break.

I convince my mom to let me go, if not to keep the peace, and as soon as I ring the bell to Sally's door, it swings open ominously.

"The others are already downstairs," Sally says in a forebodingly sickly-sweet voice from behind the opened door.

I proceed cautiously to the basement as Sally follows closely in my footsteps.

Sal and Melanie both look up at me very seriously from the couch as I walk into the room.

"I asked them to come earlier because we weren't sure how you'd react," Sally explains, sitting down next to me.

I swallow, nervous now about what I've been set up for but determined to make some headway for peace.

"How I'd react to what?" I dare ask.

Sally, Melanie and Sal all exchange looks. Sal, always the one to first break an uncomfortable silence says: "we've decided to kick Mary out of the group."

It was so final, no squeamishness about it.

I look between them helplessly, wondering how this could have happened so soon.

Sure, Eva had warned me, but I had told her to forget about it. That it would all be fine? We had all been distracted by worries other than Sally's concocted plans.

"Uhh.. why?" I ask, maybe a little stupidly.

"Kennith," Melanie answers as if anticipating such naivety. Her watery eyes drill into me, deceiving innocence turned into cold cunning. "Mary had no right to go after him after you and Sal laid claim to him."

"It's girl-code," Sally states matter of factory with her heeled legs crossed. As though such things can be enforced and she is the one to lay down the law.

I feel my ears must deceive me. Kennith wasn't property any more than Alex was.

The misguided-justice starts a small fire in me that's just fierce enough to demand: "Are we really fighting over a boy right now?"

"No," Sal says calmly. "We aren't fighting. You are."

"I am?!" The small fire burns for a few more seconds and turns to a small pilot as they eye me like a firework about to light

But I'm not the firework. They are. Self doubt begins to eat at me.

"We know you and Eva are close..." Melanie says carefully.

Catching on to where this is going I say fiercely, letting Eva be my fire for a second, "She would never agree this."

Sally smiles understandingly as though happy the conversation is going as she anticipated. "Go on," she presses.

The fire sizzles a bit. "She was going to confront you at lunch on Tuesday, but she didn't get the chance," my fire is unconvincing.

Sally shakes her head. "Such a firecracker."

"Confront Sally about what?" Sal interrupts, mock outrage on her face.

"Well?" Even Melanie's angry with me now.

Now, you, the reader, might understand what I was referring to earlier when I mentioned bitchy pubescent girls.

Just so you don't think I'm a complete moron when I tell you what happens next, I'll inform you that while I may have been bad at kickball, I tied first place in the physical fitness long distance running exam three years in a row with a boy in my age group. I scored second place in the school spelling bee two years in a row. I made it to regional in the science fair. Mary, Eva and I performed an Evanescence song together for the talent show in Fourth Grade along with Alex; we called our band Black Ivy. I played the main part in our Sixth Grade Shakespeare play.

This might give you the false impression that I wasn't as fucked up socially back then as I am now, in this instance. But, believe me, I was. Those days were just easier than these ones.

My superpower being what it is, I've dealt with a certain level of anxiety my whole life, and sometimes I do goofy things to cope with this information overload, like fixate on something away from the source of the anxiety. But this situation holds a social burden I don't think I can run away from. And none of my previous accomplishments could prepare me for the overwhelming feeling of peer pressure I feel now.

I look all three of them in the eye, something I rarely do, and I say some things about Eva that are at first meant to defend but wind up becoming unkind. I don't come to her or Mary's rescue, like I was sure I was going to. I fail miserably at that. After all, they weren't there to guide the small fire that was getting weaker and weaker under not just the pressure of Sally but my own doubts. And they wouldn't be again, unfortunately.

Eva calls me on my mom's cell the next day. She knows. Everything.

And I realize I've lost maybe the most important friend of all: my best friend. And I learn that words hurt, even the ones spoken behind closed doors. Especially those. And the fire gets a little bit smaller.